Wrapping and Unwrapping
by JessieJay13
Summary: Arthur wraps all their Christmas presents, while Merlin wraps something else. A bit of fluffy Merthur Christmas, just a few months late. Born of a tumblr post.


**A/N: I was just feeling really fluffy today. And I came across a tumblr post which said **_**"**__**Imagine your OTP wrapping Christmas gifts together. Person A is really terrible and gives up and covers person B in ribbons and bows while Person B tries to finish wrapping the rest of the gifts."**_**So this happened.**

Arthur loosened his tie with a sigh of relief; as much as he loved his job, right now what he wanted more than anything was to spend a nice relaxing evening with his boyfriend in front of the fireplace. He pulled off the tie completely as he let himself into the flat he and Merlin shared, kicking it closed behind him. Merlin wasn't lounging around in the living room, nor could sounds be heard from the kitchen.

"Merlin?" Arthur called, meandering back down the hall. He heard a grunt, then a yelp come from their bedroom and he opened the door to see Merlin sprawled on the floor with ribbons tangled around his feet. Arthur raised an eyebrow inquiringly, and Merlin beamed up at him despite the absolute disaster he had managed to make of the room. "What, pray tell, are you doing?" Arthur asked, looking around at the cluttered and paper-strewn bed and floor.

"I'm wrapping presents!" Merlin exclaimed from his position on the ground. He tried to push himself up, forgetting about the ribbons ensnaring his legs, and promptly fell over again with another yelp. Taking pity on his hapless lover, Arthur rolled his eyes in fond exasperation and bent to free him from his festive bonds, Merlin smiling sheepishly down at him.

"Well, you're doing a really awful job of it," Arthur pointed out, eyeing the mess of wrapping paper and the determinedly-unwrapped packages on the bed. There was the top-of-the-line blender they had bought for Gwen and Lance, to show their support for the restaurant they were planning to open together, the two bottles of good whiskey for Gwaine, the bundle of high-end gift certificates that Morgana couldn't possibly turn her nose up at, and a few other paltry gifts for more peripheral friends. Merlin ran a hand through his already messy hair and shrugged, still smiling despite his absolute failure at present wrapping.

"You do it then, if I'm so pants at it," he challenged, crossing his arms over his chest. Arthur smirked at him, never one to back down from a challenge.

"Fine, I will." With that, Arthur tossed his suit jacket over the back of a chair, swiped all the bows and lengths of ribbon and torn bits of wrapping paper off the bed—aiming so that most of them rained down into Merlin's lap—and sat himself on the edge of the bed, lining the presents up in a neat row. He proceeded to measure out as much wrapping paper as was needed for each, color coding the ribbons and the bow to match the print of the paper used, and began folding and taping with the precision with which he did everything in his life.

Every few seconds he could feel Merlin's hands running over his back or carding through his hair or ghosting over his stomach, but he studiously ignored his lover, intent as he was on finishing his wrapping. When he put the last present aside with a sigh of satisfaction, he turned to see Merlin kneeling behind him, his eyes sparkling with mirth in that mischievous way that usually meant trouble. Arthur narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but Merlin just gave him his best innocent look-which Arthur had learned long ago was incredibly misleading and usually adopted when he was distinctly guilty-and leaned forward to give him a quick kiss.

Arthur followed him when Merlin pulled back, reaching out to wrap a hand around the back of his lover's neck to tug him forward for a deeper kiss, their tongues mingling. It started out slow, but soon Merlin was straddling Arthur's hips and running his hands up and down his chest. Until, of course, his fingers got caught in something. Confused, Arthur looked down to see that his torso had somehow become crisscrossed with ribbons, bits of colorful tissue paper threaded through them and puffed up, and now that he thought about it he was fairly certain he could feel the weight of bows in his hair. He glared at Merlin, who was trying very hard not to laugh and doing a bad job of it.

"I may not be very good at wrapping presents," Merlin said with an impish smile, "but I think I did a pretty good job wrapping _you_." With a growl that somehow became a laugh halfway through, Arthur flipped them around and pinned a wriggling and snickering Merlin down to the bed, the carefully wrapped presents falling heedlessly to the floor as Merlin proceeded to unravel all his hard work.


End file.
